Wednesday 31 August 2011

Saturday 27 August 2011

Jade's away

for the Mr. Scruff Gig with Mike til about Tuesday so I will not be stalking the blog as much.

Also ML has joined the team to help out with any 3D environments - Rumzi won't be all alone in the 3D department anymore. Dawwwh!

Hope everyone is well!

Thursday 25 August 2011

Yu's Wallet


Here is the model for Yu's wallet, let me know if there is anything you want me to add. I wasn't sure if it was necessary to model cards and other things inside the wallet since I imagined they would be painted on. I can still add them if needed.



Asset list for day1&2 + moar concept art

The asset list for day 1&2 has been combined seeing as they're based on the same kind of environment so I just combined them.  I've added more character expressions for Kenny, Riko, Bartender, Phone Guy and the crazy Old Man, however I've just added some words to describe their emotions.  I figured that it'll just help with the visual brain storm for the characters before we start refining and cutting down the amount of expressive animation needed.  Hopefully it's more helpful that way?

Also more background stuff is added like the game cutscenes (usually consisting of closeups) and more item designs like a defibrillator, ice and towel items which will be combined to make a make-shift ice pack.  Anyway I hope you guys can check it out and start thumbnail brainstorming for the characters at least.

I've left out the audio assets for the time being as I'm writing out a sound map for the story events.  I'll post it up once I'm done so that you guys can check it out if you're interested XD.

http://www.mediafire.com/?9efbi5ern9jd4ga

Yu's room on train concept

Also this is my rendition of Yu's room on the train.  I've just modernised it a bit and added a bathroom with the right angle for the window/laptop.

The magazine rack is above the bed head bit - maybe add a little bed headrest to make it a bit more fancy? There's a spring nightlight with a switch above the bed for reading.  Blinds have been changed to the type in which you can pull the string and it'll roll up/down.  Was trying to make the room's interior more streamlined/economical.  The desk juts out from the wall (no table legs) to optimise space.  Maybe add some thin desk drawers.  There's also a hole bit under the desk to store luggage. Oh I forgot to add the laptop charger into the pic but you get the idea.  Some artwork above the desk and oh yeh, all the doors are the sliding sort.  Again going with the whole streamline/economic approach as Tim previously suggested.  The main door should look a bit bulkier compared to the bathroom door because it has machines in it to read train tickets (which is used as compartment keys).  I'm thinking about the ones in hotels where you either slide down the ticket to open/lock the door or you insert it.  Anyway, just throwing in some ideas.

Wednesday 24 August 2011

Hooray! Emma has done some awesome concept art :B


Love the atmosphere of this especially with how lights are depicted to give it a slightly dreamy touch.  I think having this kind of experience for the player will be best as it suits Yu's mind set at the moment - almost like the past events doesn't seem real at all...yet it is D:

Poor Yuey, we love you no matter how emo you getz :V

Day 2 Script minor edit 1

http://www.mediafire.com/?ftx6infrtqlx9kx via Mediafire

Edits done:
Page 2: 9-10-13 usual > usual place.
Page 2: 11: I'll leave you be to rest > I'll leave you to rest
Page 4: 14: Not all M'an > Not at all M'an
Page 5: 16: is currently training on a job be a reporter. > is currently training on the job to be a reporter.
Page 9: 3 today is the day of the official festival of that month: this word month should be the month in question.
Page 9: 1 Ancestral Month or Ghost Month as it is known by locals believe that >Ancestral Month or Ghost Month as it is also known, locals believe that
Page 15: 16 When are we moving?! > When are we going to get moving?!
Page 18: that's a god sign, > that's a good sign,
-

That is all I found and edited.
Have a nice day
Tim

Apartment idea


I came across this pic on batmantoo.deviantart.com and I thought this is a really pretty inspiration for Yu's apartment complex (or Kemi's).  This could be a similar element in the train carriage idea - just be tweaking the colours perhaps?

EDIT: I also came across this on dA


From d-vega.deviantart.com, pretty good reference for the mental asylum bit - IF we get to that bit XD.

Tuesday 23 August 2011

Game dialogue interface + example of 'game cutscene'



Are the borders too big looking?  Overall I'm really happy with the dialogue box XD. Also excuse the incredibly rough background - just playing around with colour - maybe to contrast with the use of blues in carriage 5?  And WOAH, just notice the influx of posts/comments in my inbox.  I shall enjoy :DDD

Well done guys! Keep up the work!

These be some drawings

Taking a break from building my soon-to-be-named minecraft villages's first skelton reservation to actually do something constructive. So I've done some thumbnails of all the backgrounds which I'm actually quite glad I did now as there's not as much pressure to get things right and it means I can more quickly try out different things so I wonder why I just didn't do that before. This first one is my original idea for the carriages 1-5. Its terrible and unfinished and I abandoned it to work on other things but I want to point it out as I think it gives an idea of what I was thinking for how to reproduce each carriage. As there are 5 carriages and lets face it most carriages in trains all look the same, in order to distinguish from each one there is a plaque noting the carriage number as well as the rooms it contains (most of which will be locked I imagine). Oh yeh and excuse dodgy quality, this scanner isnt the best.

Which leads me onto this quick thumbnail I did for the carriage which is a lot more straight forward then the weird design I was going for in the previous drawing (which I don't think really worked). What I was thinking for this was that along with having the sign change, to make each carriage feel distinct without having to completely redraw it we'd just have some object in the room change. In this scenario there's a little table mid way down the carriage with a plotted plant (yep that's what that's supposed to be). I figured that the object and the position of the table would be different for each carriage just to give each one more of a distinguishing feature.
More designs for Yu's room. The top one I don't like so much as I feel it looks a little cramp, where as I quite like the one below though it might look a bit too much like a bedroom then an actual room on a train. Actually what I do like about the top one is that you can see the door which will be a good way of having a transition from one scene to the other(you click the door to leave), the bottom one you're kind of looking at the room from the door. Either way, I think these need some work.

 


The 'normal' position of Yu, wasn't too sure what to do with his arms but I figured as he has them in his pockets in the concept drawings it would work here too. I think it fits though as it shows him slightly introverted due to the recent tragedy.
Last one. I realised that the conductor hadn't been designed yet so I might as well do that. I started off drawing him as really grumpy but I felt it looked too aggressive, so I went for the Brock from poke'mon look with having his eyes constantly closed and a big chubby smile. Maybe I'll give him a beard, I think a beard would look good on him. I think overly smiley guard is better then overly moody looking guard. 
And a super bonus happy drawing! This wasn't done for this project but actually something else I was working on a while back. I thought it might work as Yu's room for when he's back in the city (I know thats getting ahead of ourselves but I just thought I'd post it). Actually I don't imagine Yu's room being anything remotely like this but I figured I'd post it anyway, maybe Kemi's room? Again, don't imagine her's like this either but it doesn't hurt to post and see what peoples thing.


Auf wiedersehen.




kemi sketches



I thought it's been too long since I last uploaded so here are some warm-up kemi pics i did today XD will do more colour designs tomorrow but let me know if theres any particular item of clothing that has a colour you like haha

she looks very manly in the bottom two pictures... o__o

Creepy Experiences & Puzzle Ideas

A compilation of ideas in which I forgot to post so I'll type them up now from my sketchbook! May not make much sense but it's up for everyone to look at at least:

Creepy Experiences:
- Chatting w/ Kemi: she gets creepier and creepier with each visit at the mental hospital.  Through the phone, then tv which gets distorted over time.
- Door knocks but no one is there.
- Swinging rope sounds followed by a thud *mental hospital
-Calling out to someone in the distance but they don't acknowledge you - unnerving.
- Disappearing carriage idea.  DONE.
- Locked door, creepy voice asks if you want to enter.  Use the mic to answer / knock on the door to answer.
- Moving toy (Robbie the Rabbit idea).
- Abstract entity that chases you, block the door somehow? (Think about the candles used in SH4)
- Drowning - time limit.
- Resi4 - Play as Ashley.

Puzzle Ideas:
- Mouse = flashlight
- Decipher code - Kemi's notebook? / Hack into her computer.
- Fix fusebox for light.
- Codelock to enter a building
- Blow into mic to remove dust/joss sticks if not remove w/ mouse.
- Figure out a secret passage
- Place items in a certain order
- Dream sequence - connected by and to phone.
- Timer puzzle - long corridor / split screen.
- Piano, hear a ghost playing it, play a reply sequence/finish the sequence.
- Make an offering to a ghost in exchange for information.
- Keylock - audio/visual clues.

Inspiration of doooom :D

EVERYONE'S HOMEWORK MUST BE TO WATCH THIS!!!
it's a very short web comic!

http://comic.naver.com/webtoon/detail.nhn?titleId=350217&no=20&weekday=tue

If you don't get scared then I am scared of you..

Blog1 is just about done !

You can see what I've done so far on my dA = http://jdwasabi.deviantart.com/art/HW-Flash-Novel-soundfx-test-254473718

Hooraids, the main bulk of it is done! Now to add the rest of the sound and add some 'pretty' animation effects.  Next up - Asset list for day2.

Sunday 21 August 2011

Mini Sketchbook dump


Drawing Yu Level + 5 (I hate side profiles, can never get it right.)


Lol....can't draw girls anymore, will keep practising... sry Michell!



Train carriage colour testing. Perspective/everything fail mainly because I was drawing this at 4am as well as talking to loads of ppl online so my focus kept going all over the place.  Anyway - I'm not sure whether to keep it similar to Hotel Dusk and have the characters coloured in but static when players explore the environment.  I'm going for the royal/navy blue with cream colour combination.  Not sure what everything thinks about it here - any colour suggestions?  Also since I have Photoshop open I've compiled a quick screenshot in how I'm envisioning the game to be.  It'll be similar to my last game by having two characters in the same dialogue panel because I think it's cool to see some of the reaction shots of the characters. The game interface will need to be designed soon - any takers for that?


Rage Phone Guy FTW.

Hungry Whispers Photo Refs

Right, I've a dedicated set to pictures taken at Chinatown and related areas on my Flickr account.  Apologies if they're too dark / taken at a weird angle or some having my mum in XD  I didn't know if I was allowed to take photos in the market area so I was just being really sneaky about it. Let me know if anyone wants the original files and I can send it over via email or dropbox!

Hungry Whispers REF set on Flickr

Some example pictures are as follows:


what hair




hmm.. im not sure what counts as being done on the asset list for me (im in charge of all the phone poses for kemi and yu) but is there a specific one i havent done yet jade? or one you want more poses for?

short post is short :D

Jade's back in Bath and this is the plan, Batman.

Right, I'm back in Bath and I'm able to access all my stuff on my main computer.  The joys of being back at my actual desk!  Some things to be aware of:

- I shall reply to all comments sometime in the next 24 hours

- JohnSu has uploaded a flash source file for the squiggle effect as well as the flip book effect.  I can finally open the file in Flash CS4, save it into a CS3 file and upload it somewhere for you Mike!

- Reference pics from Chinatown will be uploaded onto my Flickr account soon. Background artwork for the city can begin soon, hooraids!

- Same for the sketches I've done, my sketchbook is already halfway finished. Gosh!

- Scripts/asset lists for day1&2 will be further edited sometime in the next few days as there are mistakes here and there.

- As the characters get more animation time in day2, I'll need to get the guys working on the animation to discuss what kind of gestures the characters can do to represent several emotions that I'll outline in the new asset list.  Perhaps I'll make a separate one for animation?

- That reminds me- MIKE: Is it possible to do the interact/look function by pressing the L/R mouse buttons?  If not I'll amend the scripts to omit the LOOK dialogue on the characters and/or try to incorporate it in the normal dialogue somehow.

- Please for whatever reason, let me know if you're having a break/on holiday/at work/ or whatever.  I do get worried if people suddenly "disappear" and haven't heard from you guys for a while XD.  Just let me know mmkay? Thanks :3

- Future apologies for when I start acting "pushy" for artwork and whatnot.  Can't be a good production manager/producer if I'm not right? Gotta keep the production output for this project constant at the end of the day!


The owl, it watches you. 


Saturday 20 August 2011

Yu's Phone 2


Ok, I added a few more things and kept it in greyscale. I left out any numbers and symbols because it didn't look quite right, it might be better when its painted on.





Friday 19 August 2011

Yu's Phone WIP


This is what I have done for Yu's phone so far. I kept the design of it basic and simple, I will add more details next and see if I can remember the settings for rendering to make it look realistic.

Also how realistic should I make it? Since the game has a different style, should I leave out tiny details and then run it through photoshop filters for the drawing effect?





Hey, hey, it's a bit quiet here ...

And before I leave for Bath tomorrow, what's the status update with everyone?  I'm in the process of writing the asset list for day2, and aiming to get my previous aims down pretty soon so I'll be having a busy weekend.  Finishing Blog1's animation/programming with sound plus drawing a visual map of the sound energy of the script.

What do you think you guys want to get from this project? Drawing/design skills +1? How did you find the first official Team Wasabi meeting last Sunday?  People who has just joined, introduced yourself! (I'm kinda look more at Tim and Chris here :P).  People who haven't commented in ages or at all...YOU ALIVE? XD Shall I credit you as the Potted Plants of the HW project :3?

I shall get the ball rolling....
I'm Jade (obviously) and I'm using this project as a step up in writing music for games and interactive media.  I've found that I actually enjoy the game development side of it and seeing the whole thing coming together.  It feels pretty good in all honesty to be leading a project like this with dedicated people and I don't really see this as work at all.  I think it'll be great to see a fully completed game one day and I love to think of the possibilities that this might be a good step into getting into the games industry. WHO KNOWZ.

(ps, I'd recommend that you guys comment- just to check whether you're alive...what's everyone up to? .__.)

Thursday 18 August 2011

I in no way endorse Vuescan (oh yeh and I've done some drawings)

I originally wasn't going to mention my exploits in trying to get these images scanned after all the scanners in my house all simultaneously decided to stop working. But I feel I have to at least explain the watermarks all over my images. After far too long trying to get at least one of the scanners working I had to download a program to get the scanner to work. Anyway it worked but it leaves a watermark all over them, I'll try and sort it out later but I felt in the spirit of getting on with things I'd post these up as they are.

I'm pretty pleased with the bar (for those of you who saw me last post it might look a bit familiar, though I changed a few things to make it look less fancy). The little tables is where i imagine the old crazy man to be.

This is Yu's room on the train. I need to add to it as it seems a little boring at the moment, but I feel its gives a general idea of what I felt the room would look like and at what angle it would be viewed from. I should probably note at this point that these aren't the greatest of images in the world but I can add and clean them up, or redraw them completely if people don't like them or not what they want.



Seeing as I was doing the bar I decided to draw the bartender as well. He only has two expressions, normal ad happy. I thought it would be good to have him cleaning wine glasses as you talk to him. For the happy expression I wasn't too sure what to do as I imagined him already with a constant small smile on his face. So for the happy expression I imagined all that would change is he would lean forward and smile a bit more with his eyes closed in proper anime fashion. This would also mean not as much animation to do for the character as you'd only need to change the top half.

Hope you all like, and again sorry for the horrible watermarks. Please try to see past them.


Utilitarian designs of sleeper trains

Hi I was looking at the background work for the sleeper trains and I thought I would add another angle on the sleeper train which is the utilitarian designs which pervaded transport these days. So to give another point of view on what a posh design of trains would look like. Even though design of backgrounds is not my area of expertise I will add some images which might add to the discourse over the other pictures. Also I see utilitarian designs in both expensive and less expensive designs but there is a trend for 4 beds which can be folded up and they look similar around the world as some of these pictures are from England, Germany and China so around the globe the design is in use by most companies.

Back to reading the script.






A warm welcome to...

Chris and Tim, being proof readers and making sure the ideas are constantly evolving ;D

Tuesday 16 August 2011

Skit face ideas

As you all know I am a persona freak so I have been using these pics as inspiration for the asset list skit faces ^__^

examples;


And the sketches!
A few for Kemi;


And some for Yu!;


with both of them on the phoooonnneee <'3
feedback much appreciated, still have a few more of Yu's skit faces to do but am wondering if i'm going about it the right way first..

Creepy Experiences / Puzzle Ideas

Compilation of creepy experiences and puzzle ideas. May not make sense to many cept those who have been up to date but I'll try and explain it to the best I can.

CREEPY EXPERIENCES:
- Once Kemi gets found and put into a mental institute, players talk to her normally but as they visit her more often you talk to her by phone with a glass plane in between and then finally a tv monitor cos she starts getting slightly crazier and crazier.  I can do some crazy sound design here as well as make the image on the tv monitors go a bit crazy and suggestive.

- Knocking on a door but no one is there.

- The sound of something heaving swinging on a rope but you can't see anything - only hear it.  Maybe you can even see its shadow but there's nothing there creating the shadow (think weird shadow thing in one of the rooms in SH4 in the hospital when looking for Eileen).  When you leave and enter again you'll hear a thud and some rope materialises out of thin air.

- Calling out to someone in the distance but they don't reply = very unnerving.

- Disappearing carriage idea (which is already in day2).

- Yu comes across a locked door, it suddenly goes silent and a creepy voice asks you if you want to enter.  You can answer something by the mic or use the mouse to knock on the door or something.

- Moving toy (Robbie the Rabbit from SH4 style).  Actually Kelly and I were discussing this recently about having a giant statue/face in a garden scene/temple and it gets more sinister every time you enter it.

- Moving shadows

- Abstract entity that chases you and blocks the door although I'm not sure how it'll work as it's not really a physical entity.  Maybe if we use the SH4 idea of using the spirit candles to repel evilness, I'm wondering if we can still incorporate that statistic system into the engine counting the amount of times you go visit the altar.

- Drowning/Time based events

- Resi4 Ashley: okay can't quite remember why this is written in my book but I think this is a reference in which you play as a 'weak' character which just reminds me of the bit where you have to run down the corridor and it's lined up with suits of armour holding their axes in the air...  Might tie it into that idea I had of when you play as Kemi (if we get that fair) and sends Yu hints/clues to his phone. Yu won't remember the dream and will be just WTF when he finds all these things on his phone lol.

PUZZLE IDEAS:
- Mouse = flashlight
- Decipher code into Kemi's computer / hack into it?
- Fix a fuse box
- Work out the the code to get in/out of somewhere.  9 numbered code but only 3 buttons seemed to be used recently and the rest are covered in dust or something.  Think TF2 Spy trailer.
- Blow into the mic to remove dust/light up some incense sticks or use the mouse to do it.
- Figure out a secret passage
- Place items in a certain order
- Dream sequence - connected by phone (explained above)
- Timer puzzle - long corridor/split screen/light effect.  Doesn't really make a lot of sense now but I'll explain it in depth if I can incorporate this into the script some how lol.
- Piano: hear something playing on it until you shine a torch on it.  Maybe you'll need to finish playing the notes of a certain sequence / finish it.
- When you make offers at the altar in exchange for information?
- If there's a puzzle on a locked door and you'll need to try and unlock it with a hairpin, have visual/audio queues.  Not sure how to do this as it sounds really complicated but it's there anyway.
- Maze puzzle in which you have to listen out when a guard approaches you so you'll need to head in the opposite way.  At the last stance, you'll hear noises coming from both the L/R only to find that it's a cat or something. Might be used for the scene in which you have to try and break into the murder scene.

That's all my notes at the moment folks.  Once the ball's rolling for Day1 and Day2 I'll start writing out the script for the next few days as I have a good idea for day3-5 but anything after, not quite yet XD.  I'll rate the notes above and see which one would fit the story/script after day5 then we'll go from there.

Phone Designs

Just to get the ball rolling with some phone designs for Yu and possibly Kemi although I'm focusing more on Yu's phone for this post.

Reminders that the phone design will need to suit his personality:
- a bit quiet/reserved
- logical
- clean - prefers minimalist design
- bit of gadget man but would not go out of his way to get the latest/popular item
- Japanese flip phone / black or dark "mature" colour.
- phone charm design; simple, slightly silly / protection charm / my dA avatar pic lol. Just throwing in some ideas.  Maybe for the full version players can unlock new phone charms over the course of the game  and personalise Yu's phone lol.

For Kemi:
- Playful / cute
- Little sister type character
- Not really fussed about how 'cool' the phone is (Yu probably more so) as long as it fits her image
- Ridiculously cute phone charm but won't go OTT with the bling or have tonnes of little phone charms lol.

I also like to think that it'll be cool to get players rely on Yu's phone so that they'll get really use to it.  I imagined that the use of Twitter is actually the save/load function when Yu updates his status "I'm on a train 14:43 23/08/11" and that when players check out the phone's media centre for pics and music it'll actually be concept art and my music compositions or something.

Also when Yu 'transports' to new locations (as opposed to just a new area within a location) players would need to access the 'MAP' function. The map is actually a transport map so Yu checks the time for the next train/bus time or whatever.  In certain parts of the game where Yu loses his phone/breaks/loses it/no network I can imagine users starting to panic because they can't save XD.  Anyway will think about the phone function a bit more while I compile a huge list of puzzle/scare events from previous posts.

Tag update: "Item/Inventory design" has been added.

Eden of the East phone:



Now some phone poses from Eden of the East because I can.


Evangelion phones:


Poncy phone:







Possible phone idea for Kemi is that hers will be a bit chunky/cute.  This phone is the same model used in the Final Fantasy Advent Children movie:


And lastly...